


The Proposal

by Serendipintea



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: BoS ending, Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout), Don't worry it's the bad guys, F/M, Mass Murder, Nuka World, The ending I wish I could've had on my BOS sole, dowry, marriage proposals, this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-06 00:55:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21217883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serendipintea/pseuds/Serendipintea
Summary: “Duty, Honor, Faith. These three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be… what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to regain hope when all hope seems lost.”





	The Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't the best, but it's just another key smash of a story Idea around my BOS Sole and the ending I wish I could've had with her.

“Now where-” 

“Before you begin your great monologue about how you’re going to end me,” the woman cut off before Colter could continue, gray blue eyes narrowed into dangerous slits even as the taught skin of the scars decorating her right eye pulled with the action. “Bigger, badder things than you have tried. This is the only warning you’ll get, surrender and I won’t kill you.” Silence rang out, then laughter. She didn’t look like much, this new victim to the Gauntlet, but Gage… Gage knew better. 

She had gotten the truth, the  _ full _ truth out of Harvey and still came despite the obvious threat to her life. Now, looking at her, he saw the tempered explosion that rest inside her, knew that she was young - twenty five at the oldest - but that she was so much older just from the way her eyes glinted like steel. She wore some kind of high tech looking skin tight suit with a bomber jacket laying overtop, both told them that she was fairly well muscled but that she didn’t dedicate her whole life to bulking up, like most Disciples. 

He didn’t warn Colter of his thoughts, though the thought that dealing with Colter would be so much easier than dealing with this one, if she lived. He almost didn’t give her any advice, and yet when he told her of his weapon she promptly told him to fuck off and walked through the doors. 

It was a relief, in all honesty, everything about her screamed that she wasn’t going to be a raider, that she wasn’t going to be able to fill that role. It would be so much easier to have someone else come through the gauntlet and take control, her dying to Colter was a bullet he dodged. 

Only she didn’t die, she took one look at his armor after stepping out of the cola cars box and scoffed. In record time she threw two mines at him and then chucked a grenade at him. Many yelled that it was fruitless, they laughed at her fruitless attempts. 

Then the grenade exploded just as Colter charged through the mines, high on adrenaline after knowing first hand that no mines or grenades could get through his defenses. He wasn’t expecting the burst of freezing fucking cold to shroud him like a radiation fog, nor for the slight kick his armor gave when it tried to draw on  _ more _ electricity. 

“You see, the thing about people who play god-” another grenade and a burst of cold, his gun froze and jammed in his frosting hands. “-is that you often overstep your damage resistance. Power armor, too, is tricky.” the joints of his power armor froze, trapping him inside it no matter how hard he struggled to move. “That particular model was made for warmer clients and, unlike it’s older models, has no circulatory heating system to prevent frost damage.” the Raiders were silent, even Red Eye was muttering a faint ‘What?’, but none were as silent as Gage. For some strange reason dread was curling in his gut like a blood worm and he, strangely, felt like he had just doomed them all. 

A single shot from her rifle silenced everyone until it was just the echo of Colter’s heavy ass falling to the floor, dead. Gage should’ve killed her right then and damned the consequences, should’ve stuck with his gut when it told him that she was no good instead of holding on to hope that she’d ease into her role as Overboss. It would’ve saved so much wasted time, so much bloodshed. Now it was just the two of them near the pond in front of Fizztop Grille, bodies of Pack, Operators, and Disciples strewn about the park and that she had reclaimed for herself. 

No gang had gotten them and, instead, she had sent the traders and slaves to each park, claiming they needed to ‘clean it up’ first. Now he faced down the one woman who had single handedly killed every fucking raider in Nuka World and took his greatest plan and laid it to fucking waste at his feet. 

“I got one question,” she cocked her brow and split the dried blood splatter caked across her scarred cheek. “Why?” 

“I didn’t fix up the commonwealth for you to fuck it up.” he had known that she had struck some chord of familiarity within him, but only now did he realize just how truly deep in shit he had gotten everyone in. He, at least, didn’t get to dwell on it much, as she drove two bullets home into his chest and then a third, final one into his skull. “And that was the last one.” with a sigh she marched to the entrance and popped one of her personalized signal grenades. Because it was so far from the commonwealth she popped three in the same place and waited, knowing that one of the scouts from Sunshines Tidings Co Op would, eventually, hone in on the electromagnetic smoke it emitted. 

An hour passed before she got a glimpse of the first vertibird in the distance, then the three following it, until finally twelve Vertibirds were highlighted in the sky. She waited until the main one touched down just a few feet from her before she marched up to the Paladin’s exiting the Vertibird, then saluted the moment she saw the familiar head of black hair. 

“Elder Maxson.” his lips twitched from underneath his beard, whether in distaste or pleasure she couldn’t tell. 

“Report, Sentinel.” she gave a stiff nod and ignored the field descriptions of the Paladin’s that were slowly filling the courtyard. 

“I received a radio transmission from Nuka World, sir. It was an amusement park in the past, high in technological advancements and a definite hotspot for civilians. I learned within the first hour of discovering the transit station that it was under the rule of Raiders. One of the local slaves informed me as such. Upon exiting the transit I was put through a Gauntlet, a maze of traps and death, then faced their leader at the end of the maze. Upon killing him I reached the hierarchy of being claimed as the new ‘Overboss’. I went along to claim the parks and get a general idea of the defenses and strengths each gang presented.” she bowed her head in apology, steel gray hair only frayed slightly around the ponytail she had put it in. “after I finished reclaiming each park I sent the slaves and traders being held captive to the Safari zone where Cito, another civilian who had been raised by the local wildlife, is currently protecting them. I eliminated every threat, as well as their leaders, and made sure to be finished before I signalled for you, sir.” 

He was silent for a moment as he processed the information she had just laid before him. “Are you injured, Sentinel?” he wouldn’t admit that the way her eyes softened when he asked that sent a thrill up his spine, though from the murmur of their brothers and sisters his reaction was obvious. 

“Not overly, sir, but I will stop in with Knight-Captain Cade for a check up.” he nodded and turned away from her just long enough to give his people orders to secure the traders and slaves, as well as to set up a presence in each park. “You will find dozens of maps as well as the layout of the park in the rotunda behind me. I would recommend sending a scribe to talk to the traders and slaves first, sir.” he nodded his ascent and watched as most of his people left to do just that, leaving the two of them alone. 

No one needed to protect the Elder when the Sentinel was around, especially since no one  _ could _ protect him should said Sentinel prove to be a traitor - though, if honest,  _ no one _ doubted how loyal she was to the cause, if not Maxson himself. 

“Have you thought over my proposal, Sentinel?” he asked while motioning for her to board the Vertibird first. 

“I have.” he nodded and waited for her answer patiently as the bird rose in the sky. Arthur Maxson was many things, patient was one of them - if he decided something was worth being patient over. It was moments like these, when the sun was lowering and painting the horizon with it’s fire red glow that he truly appreciated such patience. He’d never get to see the way her hair reflected like polished metal against the sunset, nor the blue and gray hues that sparkled like fresh water over stones. “This park is my dowry to you.” 

There she went, surprising him - and the pilot if the soft gasp he had heard was any indication. “I cannot give you the Institute’s defeat since everyone was involved. I can not give you the Commonwealth, as it is not mine to give. This, this park, is singularly mine through bloodshed and right.” she turned to him then, half her face covered in shadows from the vertibird but still managing to render him completely breathless. “I am  _ your _ Sentinel. I wish to be your equal, in life if not in order.” It was moments like this where Arthur found himself falling more and more in love with her. 

It had started off as her being the safe choice in potential marriage partners. She was prewar, healthiest and most fertile among them. Then she had proven to not know of Danse’s betrayal and had, without question, disposed of the traitor that wore Danse’s features. She was not always somber and collected as many new recruits thought, he often found her talking with the squires and taking over their education. It was in a situation such as that where he felt his first inklings of adoration for her. 

She had stood before the six squires and was questioning them about honor, about what it would mean to them and then asked what they would do in certain situations.  _ “Duty, Honor, Faith. These three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be… what you  _ ** _will_ ** _ be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to regain hope when all hope seems lost.” _ He would never, ever forget the way each child looked up at her and questioned her more, backs a little straighter as if her words empowered them.  _ “Duty. If all else fails, if you feel like you’ve nothing to offer, remember that you have a purpose. When you think you have nothing more to offer, look to your brothers and sisters in arms and remember that  _ ** _you_ ** _ are just a leaf on a twig. Alone, you offer nothing, but together you offer shade, shelter. Honor, this is what you should dictate your actions by. Are your actions something that would make your Elder proud? Are you doing right to the people you want to protect, to the people you want to support the Brotherhood?” _

She turned inexplicably sad when one of them asked her about faith.  _ “Faith, faith is tricky. It could be religious faith. It could be faith in a person, or cause. _ ” the words echoed in his head even as he took her hand gently in his own, calloused palm against calloused palm.  _ “Faith is whatever you believe, no matter that belief. You must believe in something, _ ” 

“What do you believe in?” they were close now, chest to chest with wind whipping around them, each with one hand on the overhead railing so they didn’t tip out.

“I believe that everything balances out eventually.” she looked down at their joined hands and gave him a small, genuine smile that had the tension in his shoulders laxing. “I believe in you, too.” 

He kissed her softly then, relishing in the way her lips felt soft and yielding against his. She did not press for anything more than a kiss, did not overload him with teeth and tongue and instead kept it, thankfully, light. He stayed by her side once they made it to the Prydwen and she went for her official check up with Cade. He stayed by her side when she was cleared and made her rounds greeting everyone, then was thankful that he had when the Squires ran to her.

“We thought about what you said, ma’am!” the youngest Squire announced, “You said that we had to have something to believe in. We believe in the Brotherhood, but we also believe in you, ma’am!” 

“Me?” she was the only one stunned by this revelation. 

“Yes ma’am! Just like we believe in Elder Maxson, ma’am, we believe in you! You’re strong, kind, and teach us in your free time. You’re honorable and always put your brothers and sisters first, your my idol!” he had never seen her blush, the sight of her ivory skin turning peach with blush was one he would commit to memory and spend every alone moment with her trying to draw out. 

“I’m honored that you chose me to be among your beliefs.” she kneeled down to look them in the eyes and offered each one a kind, warm smile. “I will endeavor to continue to represent that which makes you proud.” and then, much like in the storybook Arthur had once read when he was younger, she bowed her head, bestowing an honor the children didn’t fully grasp on them. 

Arthur had thought about what it would be like to have children with her and each time he could never see her giving up her child to be raised in a fortified bunker like his mother had. It… relieved him, honestly. He never got to know his father, he never got to know what it was like to be in a family that consisted of a mother and father instead of an instructor and a bunch of brothers and sisters. He wanted to know what it would be like to be a father, to have that relationship. With her it was possible, anyone else would insist on the child being raised much like he had so that the Maxson bloodline remained strong. 

He waited until she was finished with the children before he dragged her to the meeting room where he had first laid eyes upon her so long ago. It was here he had given her the order to kill the Synth wearing Danses face, it was here he had given her the order to infiltrate the Institute, and here they had celebrated in a small group of officials only once it had blown up. It was here where he had first made the proposal to her, and here where he made the final proposal to her. 

It was in the very same room where she had accepted and a ship wide broadcast was made, signaling the start of their union. 

“Attention, this is Lancer Captain Kells broadcasting on all Brotherhood of Steel Frequencies. I would like to inform you that our very own Elder Arthur Maxson is now engaged to Sentinel Anna Steele.” Arthur couldn’t help the grin he wore when the ship erupted in shouts of joy or applause, especially not when his  _ wife _ leaned into him, laughing softly. “All Settlements are to report in with their daily duties before celebrating, that is all.” 

“To a brand new life,” he sealed the promise with a kiss.


End file.
